2002

 

Felix Posen Doctoral Candidates

 

G?ran Adamson (London School of Economics and Political Science)

The Sudden Post-1986 Rise of the Austrian Freedom Party: Four Hypotheses

 

Maria Ghitta (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania)

Nationalism and Antisemitism among the Romanians of Transylvania between the Two World Wars

 

Laurent Joly (Sorbonne)

L'Administration antijuive de Vichy: Le Commissariat g?n?ral aux Questions juives, 1940-1944

 

Anna ?ysiak (Jagellonian University)

Antisemitism and the Catholic Church in Poland between the Two World Wars

 

Isabelle Rohr (London School of Economics and Political Science)

The Franco Regime and the Jews: Antisemitism and Rescue Activities

 

Daniel Tzadik (Yale University)

The Ulama and the Other: The Attitude of the Nineteenth Century Iranian Clerics toward the Jews

 

Second Year

 

Michal Frankl (Charles University, Czech Republic)

Czech Antisemitism in the Context of European Antisemitism, 1879-1900

 

Sandrine Sanos (Rutgers University)

The Fantasy of the "Jew:" Gender, Race and Antisemitism in 1930s France

 

Research

Five new research projects approved by the Academic Committee for the academic year 2001-2002

 

 Dr. Yaron Harel  (Bar-Ilan University)

The Response of the Enlightened Jews in the Near East to the Dreyfus Affair

 

A century after the Dreyfus Affair, one issue has not yet received scholarly attention--the antisemitism in the Near East that accompanied the trial, and the responses of the local Jewish communities.

Dr. Harel's research is based on the ideas contained in the booklet of an Enlightened Jew (maskil) from Aleppo, David Silvera, on the dangers of antisemitism and the ways to combat it. Dr. Harel compares these ideas to those of other maskilim in the Near East and Europe. He also assesses the impact of the Dreyfus Affair on the development of antisemitism in the Arab nations to this day.This project is a landmark analysis of the introduction of modern European antisemitism into the Middle East. At the same time, it also reveals the emerging solidarity between the Jews of this region and of Europe in the fight against antisemitism.

   

Prof. Andrew Horn  (Harvard University)

The Connecting Thread--Kipling's "White Man" and the Antisemitism of Empire

 

The focus of the study is the vivid antisemitism of Rudyard Kipling. Until now this aspect has been largely written out of Kipling studies in favor of analysis of his imperialist jingoism and imagery of Indians and Africans. Scholarly defenders of Kipling argue that antisemitism in his texts simply reflected contemporary prejudices, was not deeply felt by the author, and was tempered by what Kipling saw as the redeeming qualities in some Jews.

Nevertheless, a clear and intensifying antisemitism is evident throughout Kipling's writing career. This is particularly important because of his pivotal role in the development of the imperial narrative.  Furthermore, Kipling's works contain abundant material for the study of antisemitism, especially since many of its intellectual expressions were quite uninhibited at the time.

   

Dr. Florin Lobont (West University, Timisoara, Romania)     

Dr. Dan Stone

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Modernization and Antisemitism in Modern Romania: Continuities and Changes in Political Action and Culture

 

Concerned with the high proportion of youth among the voters for radical Right parties in the 2000 elections, the authors examine the relationship between modernization and the overall historical, cultural and psychological background of antisemitism in Romania. They found a growing body of revisionist literature that tries to minimize Romanian antisemitism or justify it in the name of patriotism or national interest.

By setting the history of antisemitism into a theoretical context (using the tools of sociology, anthropology, and the philosophy of political culture and history), this project will result in a modern synthesis on the phenomenon of antisemitism in Romania, from its roots in the sixteenth century to the present day.

 

Dr. Vadim Rossman

(Austin, Texas)

Jewish Conspiracy and Yellow Peril: Antisemitism and Sinophobia in the Nineteenth Century

 

Three phobias have haunted the imaginations of many European conservative intellectuals since the nineteenth century: communism, the Yellow Peril, and the Jewish International Conspiracy. According to some of these intellectuals, the Jews and Chinese constituted a single, rather terrifying, "Other." Vadim Rossman will conduct research on the connections made by these Europeans between specific fears--the threat of sinification and judaization to the foundations of European culture as well as the negative roles of Jews and Chinese in modernization.

Beginning with the correlation of the Jews and Chinese to the idea of apocalypse in fin-de-si?cle Russian elite culture, the project then assesses the repercussions of these ideas in later years. Particular emphasis will be devoted to the study of how Nazi ideologues employed this idea--the Red threat to Europe from Asian hordes led by Jewish Bolsheviks. Dr. Rossman's project is of especial relevance in light of the fears sparked in the West over China's emergence as a global economic and military power.

 

Dr. Gyula Vattamany (University of Debrecen, Hungary)

John Chrysostom and the Twentieth Century

 

This project examines the anti-Jewish writings of John Chrysostom, an early church father. In particular, the author will use a myth-critical approach that should deepen the research of the early roots of antisemitism in Christianity. The first goal of the myth-critical research is a mapping of the metaphors in the texts and then an analysis of the imaginary (or virtual) world depicted by Chrysostom's anti-Jewish rhetoric.

 The myth-critical approach helps to explain why the anti-Judaism stirred in the early centuries of Christianity can be used to spark antisemitic emotions up to the present. Therefore, this study will focus on the linguistic and literary aspects of Chrysostom's homilies. The second goal is to construct a full view of his vision and to attempt to conclude why it reappeared in later versions of antisemitism, including the reception of the texts in the twentieth century. 

 

Third Year

Prof. Oleg Budnitskii

Russian Jews between the Reds and the Whites: Jews and the anti-Bolshevik Movement

 

Dr. Philippe Oriol

Bernard Lazare and Antisemitism

 

Continuing Projects

Jean Ancel

Antisemitism vs. Nationalism -- Romania 1942

Romania, until recently an avowed communist country, has a long history of hatred for its Jewish minority. However, most of the Jews of Romania were saved from Hitler's "Final Solution." This study will analyze why this was so, based on newly uncovered archival sources, consisting of both German and Romanian documents.

Shaul Baumann

The Attitude of the Eranos Circle to Jews and Judaism

 

Danny Ben Moshe

Holocaust Denial in Australia

 

Olaf Blaschke

Jews and Catholics in the German Empire

 Proposes a reevaluation of the nature of relations and conflicts between the German Catholics and the Jews, approaching the problem in three ways: by exploring the issue of Jewish integration; the real reasons for conflict and animosity between Catholic and Jews; an examination of the Jewish perception of Catholic antisemitism.

 

Jacob Borut

Antisemitism in Jewish Everyday Life in the Weimar Republic

Based on archival materials from the German Jewish communities and the German local authorities' archives, the research will 
focus on concrete expressions of antisemitism in the social and economic aspects of Jewish everyday life during the Weiman period, such as: violent attacks on Jews and on their properties, desecration of Jewish cemeteries, and boycaotts of Jewish businesses in towns and villages.  

 

Benjamin Braude

The Image of the Jew in the Literature of Eastern Travel, 1350-1650: Power and the Transition to Antisemitism

 

Patrick Cavaliere

Antisemitism in Fascist Italy: The Intellectual Origins of the Racial Laws of 1938

The main goal of the study will be to present an intellectual history of antisemitism in Fascist Italy by providing a descriptive account of the ideological vindications and doctrinal justification of the anti-Jewish laws.

 

Brian Horowitz

Russian-Jewish Interaction: Cultural Cooperation in an Epoch of Antisemitism

 

Melinda Jones

The Role of Law in Overcoming Antisemitism in Australia

 

Jonathan Judaken

Theorizing Antisemitism: Confronting Modernity and Modern Judeophobia

 

Horst Junginger

The Study of the "Jewish Question" and its Academic Setting in Germany, 1933-1945

 

Leonid Katsis

The Ideological History of the Blood Libel in Russian Orthodox Thought from "The Book of a Neophite" to the Beilis Trial

 

Victoria Khiterer

Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Ukraine, October 1905

 

Jo?l Kotek

Antisemitism in Belgian and French Comic Strips (1933-2000)

 

Andr?s Kov?cs

The Perception of Antisemitism among Jews in Contemporary Hungary: Results of a Survey

 

Vygantas Vareikis

From Prejudice to Destruction: Antisemitism in Lithuania at the End of the Nineteenth Century and during the First Half of the Twentieth Century

 

Hanna Wegrzynek

The Origins of the Blood Libel Accusations in Poland

 

The following research project has been completed

 

Jos? Luis Rodr?guez-Jim?nez

Extreme Right Xenophobia and Antisemitism in Spain (1931-1982): The Purpose of the Conspiracy Theory in Political Situations of Regime Change

 

See also: Research 2002